Dear readers,
This is my first post on Steemit, I thought this was worth the time.
I invested in the Giga-Watt ICO after long and careful consideration. Before going on, I just want to mention, I am fully aware of the risks of doing business in the crypto space. First rule: INVEST ONLY WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOOSE.
That being said. I did my research, I was convinced by the fact that the CEO, Dave Carlson, had been in the crypto mining business. Secondly because of the hydro power and cheap electricity. And thirdly because the company was located in the USA, and the location was open for visitors. They made the impression that they were transparent and serious.
So I bought the WATT Tokens and also one miner to see how things go.
The Tokens were sold on the Cryptonomos webpage. I bought a small amount of tokens in June 2017. And the miners are sold by a sister company of Giga-Watt in Singapore.
On the Cryptonomos webpage were the ICO was organised, the company stated it had functional facilities. The advertised they hat Power (Watt) available. Also they had a time line which stated they would be building pods by July. They also stated when the tokens would be distributed, exact dates were mentioned.
Everything looking good so far! So I thought.
Then cracks appeared in the perfect picture. Delays were announced only after people did not get their tokens. The company knew they could not get things ready on time, but they did not informed their customers. I did not get any email. I only found out there were problems, after I read on forums that customers did not get their tokens, I sent a bunch of emails to Giga-Watt and they answered some of them, without mentioning any specifics. They blamed the US Government inspections for the delays. We are talking about the same company which stated they had years of experience in mining in the USA and stated they have miners running.
Then after weeks, Dave Carlson sent ONE email to the customers to say he is sorry and the government inspectors are the one to blame. Since this one email, I have not received any further emails or information from Giga-Watt. The only way to get Information was to read forums and hundreds of messages on their Telegramm channel which were answered by some ( a litte bit arrogant) staffers.
The worst part is, they kept selling miners on the webpage of gigawatt.sg (the sister company which sell the miners and is situated conveniently in Singapore.
For anyone doing mining and buying ASIC miners, knows one month of delay equals serious losses. The difficulty of mining is rising exponantionally as Bitmain sold thousands of miners in the last months. This miners are being delivered as I write this, and difficulty is further going up. This means small time miners, have no chance to earn back their investment.
I had a delay of 2,5 Months. In my case this was a estimated loss of 4000 USD. I am still waiting for my tokens... No exact date given by Giga-Watt. No transparency, just "coming soon" & " be patient, were are doing everything we can, it is not our fault".
I presumed this experienced group of people would at least have built one building and setup one miner, just to see how everything works out. That the CEO and his staff would have cleared legal and security issues BEFORE starting an ICO...
So in conclusion:
Giga-Watt is a real company. You can buy miners from them, they will accept your money or crypto, do not worry!
They have facilities up and running now, after months of delays.
Their customer support is terrible. They do no give any correct dates of finishing their building.
If you are considering investing in Giga-Watt think twice. Buying miners direct from them could be risky if they have more of this "unexpected delay". I expect things to get better from January 2018 on.
My prognosis:
I do not believe the Watt token which was worth 1 to 1,2 USD during the ICO to increase in price. So people investing in the tokens expecting it to skyrocket, must consider, how much is this token worth? You get cheaper electricity and service for 50 years (if the company exists that long) by Giga-Watt but the tokens can be worth only that much, at a certain point the price of token will not compensate for service and electricity advantage Giga-Watt offers.
Also, other companies with better staff and service will appear on the horizon if this concept is profitable (and it is).
A friend of mine who is a genuin cypherpunk once told me: just by the crypto, that more lucrative, forget small time mining. If I had, i.e. BTC was at 2000 USD, by now I would have quadrupled my investment :)
Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me twice, shame on me
Do not get fooled dear crypto adventures
Greeting